SPORTS OF THE TIMES

SPORTS OF THE TIMES; THE ROBINSON PLOT THICKENS

By Dave Anderson

Published: May 18, 1987

NOW the Knicks don't have a general manager, a coach or a lottery choice, much less the No. 1 selection that would have been David Robinson, Navy's tall ship. But wait. If a certain scenario were to develop, the 7-foot-1-inch center would emerge in two years as a free agent available to any National Basketball Association team.

In the N.B.A. lottery yesterday, the San Antonio Spurs drew the No. 1 choice in the June 22 draft. Their general manager, Bob Bass, quickly acknowledged that Robinson would be selected despite the two-year hitch that Robinson must serve following his Naval Academy graduation at Annapolis, Md., on Wednesday.

Under current N.B.A. rules, if the Spurs don't offer enough money to sign Robinson before next year's draft, he would be eligible for next year's draft. And if Robinson did not sign with the N.B.A. team that drafted him next year, he would become a free agent on the day of the 1989 draft. To avert that possibility, the N.B.A. soon will discuss Robinson's unique situation.

''According to what we've been told by the Secretary of the Navy, Robinson will not be available full time to an N.B.A. team for two years,'' Commissioner David Stern said. ''Part time, we don't know. As for the Spurs retaining his draft rights beyond one year because he's in service, that's something we're going to be studying in the near future. It's never come up before.'' The N.B.A. could go either way. The Spurs surely would contend that their draft rights to a service-bound player should be retained beyond the end of his hitch. But some teams might prefer that if a service-bound player can't be signed, he be eligible for the next year's draft and then, if still not signed, available in another year as a free agent.

But what might be even more important in this litigious era is what the player prefers. Especially a player of Robinson's stature as a N.B.A. prospect.

If the N.B.A. declares that Robinson is bound to the Spurs beyond his two-year hitch, he could argue that the N.B.A. had changed its rules retroactively to restrain his negotiating rights. Robinson has not yet announced that he has retained an agent. But he is being romanced by ProServe, the Washington agency that represents Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Moses Malone.

By spurning the Spurs' offer in the next year, Robinson would be risking an injury, on or off the basketball court, that could end his N.B.A. career before it began. But if he remains healthy and he were a free agent for the 1989 season, when he will have just turned 24 years old, the Knicks or the Celtics or the Lakers might be willing to meet his price.

Olympic eligibility for the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul, South Korea, won't be a factor in whatever Robinson decides. Basketball players chosen for the United States Olympic Team may compete in the Olympics even though they have signed N.B.A. contracts, as long as they haven't competed for N.B.A. teams.

As a unanimous all-America center and Player of the Year during the recent season, Robinson is expected to be permitted by the Navy to compete for the United States team in the Pan-American Games this summer and in the Olympics next year. Not since Bill Russell played in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne has the N.B.A. been so willing to wait for a player.

The Spurs, of course, will pursue Robinson, whom Bass described as a ''terrific athlete who's 7-1 and a young player who hasn't even scratched the surface of his ability; when he gets with better players, he'll be even better.'' And maybe Robinson will accept the Spurs' offer, thereby assuring his financial future against injury or accident. But maybe not.

The Knicks, meanwhile, were frowning with the frustration of Scotty Stirling's legacy as general manager - the November trade for Gerald Henderson that awarded the Knicks' first-round draft choice to the Seattle SuperSonics unless it was the first, second or third choice.

When the Knicks drew the fifth choice in the first round in yesterday's lottery, that selection will be used by the SuperSonics, with the Knicks now getting the 18th choice - a pick that Seattle had obtained from the Milwaukee Bucks in the trade that included Jack Sikma. But the New Jersey Nets, in the lottery for the first time, got the third choice.

On draft day, the Phoenix Suns have the second choice. And when Jerry Colangelo, their general manager, was asked which players he was considering, the first name he mentioned was Dennis Hopson, the 6-5 Ohio State forward who now is expected to be a guard.

If the Suns do choose Hopson, the Nets could go for 6-9 Armon Gilliam of Nevada-Las Vegas, 6-9 Derrick McKey of Alabama, 6-7 Reggie Williams of Georgetown, or 6-3 Kenny Smith of North Carolina. And the Nets have a general manager (Harry Weltman) and a coach (Dave Wohl), which is more than the Knicks have. But all along, Dick Evans, the president of Madison Square Garden Corporation, has appeared to be waiting for Don Nelson, the Bucks' general manager-coach whose team has now been eliminated from the N.B.A. playoffs.

''Is Nelson still in the picture? '' Evans was asked.

''I never said he was,'' Evans replied with a smile.

''Yeah,'' somebody said, ''but you never said he wasn't.''

Now that the Bucks are out of the playoffs, the Knicks can pursue him. And if Robinson's free-agent scenario develops, in two years they would be able to pursue him.